New (to me) rifle-WWII Russian M-44

Picked up this gun yesterday. . . it was pretty much an impulse buy. Its a Mosin Nagent M-44 (Russian). I don't know very much about it, but what I do know is that it was made in 1945, all the serial numbers match, it shoots 7.62X54R (pretty good sized round ), and the permanently attached beyonet is, in my opinion, badass. They had several of them at the store, some of them had very subtle differences, and since I dont know anything about them I just picked up the one that looked the best.

I shot it today, all 20 of the rounds i bought for it, and it shoots great! I have done a little research since my purchase, and I read that often the shots will be off by as much as 1 foot per 100 yards if you shoot it with the beyonet folded, because these guns were sighted in with the beyonet extended and it changes the barrel harmonics or something to that effect. I shot it with the beyonet folded and it seemed very accurate, so I am quite pleased.

That sure is a good looking rifle and you say it's shooting good too. Heck it don't get no better than that. Was that the one the Russey's used against the Germans at St Pete. Their snipers turned the Germans with that rifle if I remember right. Anyway enjoy and good luck with it.

Thanks man. I don't think this was a sniper rifle, but there were a few variations of this gun that were used as snipers. I do recall reading that the Russians ruined the day of many a Nazi with this weapon.

I think I read somewhere once before that the US actually made thousands of the M44 rifles for Russia during WWII. My wife bought one of those for her uncle a while back. It's a pretty good deer gun. I agree the bayonet, however useless, looks pretty badass.

I think I read somewhere once before that the US actually made thousands of the M44 rifles for Russia during WWII. My wife bought one of those for her uncle a while back. It's a pretty good deer gun. I agree the bayonet, however useless, looks pretty badass.

Remington and New England Westinghouse made Mosin Nagants for the pre-Bolshevik Russian government. Some were fielded by a US expeditionary force during the Russian Civil War. Not sure about after that.

The MNs are the best buy in military surplus now. I still find the rimmed cartridge in a bolt action rifle to be weird. It's actually a pretty good round and a solid, ultra-reliable rifle.

What you should do is get yourself a C&R license. ($30 for 3 yrs.) You can get all the ammo you want and at good prices. It's not all corrosive. I have 5 of those. All different. You can get them as low as around 50 bucks.
You can also get a good idea by going to the dealers web sites. Aim ,Southern Ohio Guns, Century etc. GREAT hobby!